Shackleton
SIR Ernest Shackleton had become the foremost British Polar explorer of his day. He had accompanied Scott on the Discovery expedition of 1901-03 and so had all the qualifications to become a schoolboy hero. He led his own expedition in 1907-09 to find the exact location of the South Pole in the Nimrod, during which he climbed Mount Erebus (3,794m) and with three companions - John Boyd Adams, Eric Marshall and Frank Wild - achieved the furthest-ever position South of 88° 22". They were only 158 miles away from the magnetic pole, but were forced back by shortage of food. Shackleton had, however, broken the record and was, on his return to England, fêted as a hero.
In 1914 Shackleton took the Endurance to the Antarctic where the ship became locked in by pack ice and was crushed. The crew was forced to abandon the ship and was marooned on Elephant Island, enduring the hardships of the Antarctic winter. They were saved only by an heroic open boat journey of some 800 miles across the polar seas to South Georgia, once the pack ice had melted. The hero of the hour was undoubtedly 'the Boss', Shackleton.
"For scientific leadership, give me Scott, for swift and efficient travel give me Amundsen. But when you are in a hopeless situation, when you are seeing no way out, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton." (Sir Raymond Priestley - a member of the 1907-09 Nimrod Expedition.)
After the First World War, Shackleton planned another expedition to the Antarctic in the Quest. The aim of the expedition was to chart the little known boundaries of the Antarctic land mass and to try to discover the sunken 'lost' island of the Southern Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Right from in its inception, this voyage was wrapped up in symbolism and expectation. Like Thor Heyerdahl on his famous raft expeditions, Shackleton believed that by choosing his crew from different nationalities he could demonstrate unity of purpose and break down barriers. Unlike Heyerdahl he could not extend to foreign cultures, but did have representatives from most of the Dominions of the British Empire. He needed a cabin boy, and he knew where to look.
On July 9th, 1921, he wrote:
"For many years, I have been an admirer of the Boy Scout Movement, which I may say appeals to me particularly because it seems to give every boy a grounding in the practice of exploration."
Baden-Powell had often used in his 'yarns' stories of British pluck as exemplified by explorer-heroes including Scott and Shackleton. He very much approved of the expedition and was delighted to read that the Quest was to have part of his old friend Rudyard Kipling's poem 'If' inscribed on a large plaque below the bridge. B-P agreed to provide Shackleton with six boys from whom the explorer could chose the Scout to accompany the expedition.
The Process
ON July 9th, 1921, the Organising Secretary of the Scout Association, Major Wade, wrote a letter to the Daily Mail: -
"Sir,
I have this morning discussed with Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the Chief Scout, the question of selecting the Scout to accompany Sir Ernest Shackleton ... Scouts will be selected on their Scout Service, particularly those Scouts who hold the Cornwell Badge ... Applications are pouring in."
With the involvement of the Daily Mail, the ball was rolling, not only amongst would-be Scout explorers, but also the entire nation was enthralled by the prospect of another great British exploration. The Daily Mail ran coverage almost every day until departure. It organised a separate competition for Scouts based on the best essays with the title "Why I would like to go with Shackleton". Of course, the 50 winners did not get to go on the expedition, but they did get an all-expenses paid trip to London and a night on board the Quest.
And how those applications to the Scout Association poured in! There were a total of 1,700. They had to be from Scouts aged between 17 and 19, and they had to possess skills likely to be of use to the expedition. Ways had to be found to 'weed out' applicants. In the event the Cornwell Award criterion was not made a requirement, as only two of the names submitted to Sir Ernest were holders of the medal. The response had been so overwhelming and the quality so high, that the number of names to be submitted to Shackleton was extended to ten.
They were:
 Nine of the ten boys interviewed by Sir Ernest Shackleton (left, foreground). James Marr is in his kilt, obscuring one of the other Scouts. The other adult may be Percy Everett, but which Scout is Patrol Leader Mooney? |
Kings Scout Sidney Jones | 171st Liverpool |
| Troop Leader Ernest E Bromley | 6th Sheppey Troop | |
| Kings Scout John Gould | 124th Sheffield (Endcliffe) | |
| Troop Leader W Gordon Brandreth | St Matthews Troop, Barrow in Furness | |
| Patrol Leader Norman E Mooney | 2nd Orkney Group | |
| Patrol Leader W J Warren | Prestonkirk Troop, East Linton | |
| Patrol Leader J W S Marr | 1st Aberdeen | |
| Kings Scout H R Hadrill | Sherwood, Nottinghamshire | |
| Cornwell Scout J Brandford | 1st Knottingley Troop, Yorkshire | |
| Cornwell Scout J H Harvey | Portland Troop, Dorset |
The Chief Scout was in France on August 17th, 1921, when Sir Ernest interviewed the ten boys, so he was assisted by Major Wade and Sir Percy Everett, who wrote an account of the interviews published in Headquarters Gazette the following month. Sir Percy reports that it was a very close decision; Shackleton told him that he wished he could take the lot! As it was, he could not distinguish between the top two, and so decided to take them both.
Patrol Leader Norman Mooney, aged 17, was a quiet, almost shy young man. He was an all-round handyman with some knowledge of photography, microscopy, electricity and trigonometry. He pointed out that he had grown up with the sea and that there was a proud tradition of polar exploration in Orkney. (It was reported that Mooney had never seen a train before his visit to London. As there are still no trains on Orkney, I can imagine that there might still be young men living there who have never seen one.) Mooney had joined the Kirkwall Scout Group (2nd Orkneys) Wolf Cub Pack in June 1915 and he said in the first of two articles published in the Young Britain magazine of October 6th, 1921 that he never knowingly missed a single meeting throughout his Scouting career. He had two brothers, one older and one younger, but thought himself best-qualified to be on the Quest, because his brothers 'had promising academic careers', whereas he had already left Kirkwall Secondary School with his leaving certificate and felt he was ready for such a challenge.
Everett described Patrol Leader James Marr as being, "a bluff, big-hearted fellow from Aberdeen, where he had been studying at the University." He held the Silver Cross and the Humane Society's Medal for Life-Saving. He was 18 years old and on his Scout Uniform he wore his Scout National Service Badge earned during the First World War. He too had joined the Movement as a Wolf Cub and had nine years service with the 1st Aberdeen Troop which was closely associated with Aberdeen Grammar School and had been attended by Marr and all seven of his brothers! At the time of his selection, six brothers were still at the school, but one elder brother had joined HMS Conway Sea Training School. (I wonder if Marr realised that his hero, Baden-Powell, also had an elder brother, Warington, who had attended Conway?)
So, finally, it was two Scots who were chosen, both well qualified, but neither were holders of the Cornwell Award. Both, it may well be supposed, were ecstatic. Marr was later to write:
"Imagine how my heart leapt when the news was told!
Oh yes, it was good to be young, and ambitious, and chosen."
An interesting aside is that a voluntary Gilwell Instructor, Mr J C Mason, had by this time also been accepted on the expedition as its Official Photographer.
Preparations and Departure
BOTH boys were fêted like heroes. B-P wrote to congratulate them:
"My Dear Scouts,
I want, in the first place, to congratulate you, as no doubt hundreds of others have done, on your selection by Sir Ernest Shackleton as members of the great 'Quest' expedition: and, secondly, I want to ask you to remember that far away you will be the centre of a world-wide interest on the part of not only your brother Scouts, but of everybody who believes in, or does not believe in, Scouts."
Living up to that must have been some burden!
Both Scouts received various presentations. Pursers and Sons, watchmakers to the Admiralty, gave Lever Watches to the Scouts. Other gifts included special boots, cameras and fountain pens. They became quite major celebrities in an age when few ordinary boys were raised to public acclaim. They appeared on the front cover of Young Britain magazine on October 6th, 1921 and that and the following issue devoted several pages to their young lives. The boys were left in no doubt that they were representing not only Scouting, but also the youth of the nation.
The Quest
Shackleton purchased the vessel in Norway. Foca I was originally built as a sealer and was in very poor condition before she was refitted for expedition use. She was not much bigger than a trawler, being 111ft (34m) in length and 23 ft (7m) in beam, with a draft of 12 feet (4m). What was unusual, even in 1921, was the fact that for a vessel that might have to contend with pack ice, she was wooden hulled. She weighed 120 tonnes and displaced 200 tonnes. Sounding platforms had been added to the ship to enable the crew to sound the ocean to a depth of six miles and a seaplane was stowed on her deck.
Departure was delayed several times. Both Scouts had been staying as guests of Mr John Quiller Rowett, an old friend of Shackleton who financed the expedition, which was named partly in his honour. Shackleton and Rowett had been friends since their days at Dulwich College (a preparatory school for the Merchant Navy), and Rowett had gone on to become a rich man through importing rum and was unstinting in his support of the expedition. The vessel was moored at St Catherine's Dock, near the Tower of London, and both Scouts were very much in the public eye as the vessel prepared to sail. They are shown above raising the King's Flag specially presented to the Quest.
Quest slipped her moorings at 1p.m. on September 17th, 1921. The Daily Mail reported:
"Dense crowds were gathered about the vicinity of St. Catherine's Dock ... and along both sides of the river, wherever space allowed, to witness the departure ... London Bridge was scarcely passable half-an-hour before the sturdy wooden craft came into sight. Volumes of cheering greeted the appearance of the vessel. Within another half-hour she was out of sight, but reports from Woolwich and Greenwich and other places down the Thames all reported the same enthusiastic valediction."
A wireless message was received from the Quest recorded their view of the proceedings:
"Along the banks of the river were large numbers of people, and a fearful din from the sirens of the steamers throughout the whole of the passage. A pretty picture was made of the hundreds of nurses in their white dresses at Greenwich Hospital and the boys of Greenwich Naval School waving farewells."
There was a further message from P.L. Mooney:
"Many thanks for all your kind wishes. Tell the boys of Scotland and England to keep the Scouts' flag flying."
Quest called at Plymouth before finally leaving the shores of Great Britain. Both Scouts were invited ashore for 'a jamboree' according to an article in The Evening News, published the following day.
Ever Southwards
THE ship had experienced very rough weather in the Bay of Biscay, there was some damage and it was discovered that the engine transmission was out of line. Shackleton ordered the vessel to detour to Lisbon. If she could not cope in 'home waters' she would not cope round the Horn and in Antarctic waters. Scout Mooney was, in Marr's words, 'out of it'. He, with the adult Scout photographer Mason were brought low by the seasickness and had to leave the ship at Madeira. This must have been hard to bear, especially in view of the expectations placed on Mooney. In his own words on his application form, he had emphasised his sea-faring connections and that he had grown up in sight of the sea. However, anyone who has ever suffered from seasickness must surely sympathise.
The vessel was to detour further to Rio de Janeiro as mechanical problems grew worse. It was discovered that the propeller was far too heavy for the ship and a new one had to fitted. There was increasing criticism that the Quest was not suited to its task, but Shackleton would not, publicly at any rate, concede this view. He wrote to Rowett on December 18th from Rio that he need have no fears about the Quest - "have nothing to do with anything wrong with the ship: the ship is right."
The Western Mail on April 12th, 1922, carried an account written by Patrol Leader Marr for his Aberdeen School magazine. The journey from Rio de Janeiro to South Georgia was full of interest:
"In the first place we had very bad weather throughout, and secondly, I had ample opportunity of learning sailoring. since I was working as a deckhand.
"On Christmas Day the wind got up and blew half a gale. This was very unfortunate as it made it impossible to cook or hold any festivity whatsoever. We were knocked about a good deal, and the seas varied from twenty to thirty feet high. We took a quantity of water over the rails.
"On December 28th, I came on watch at two in the morning. We were running before a strong gale and pitching and rolling heavily. The waves were quite 30ft height, and were breaking over the after end of the ship and on the bridge.
"I was looking out on the bridge when the officer of the watch sent me down for a tin of milk. Crossing my feet on the foot-bridge I was washed right off my feet. I hung onto a ledge with my hands and so was saved from further disaster.
"By seven in the morning the waves were averaging between 30ft and 40ft high. Many were over 40ft. The gale had increased to a hurricane.
"We hove to about nine-o-clock and bags of oil were put down in front of the bows to keep down the sea, where the weight of the storm struck us. The effect was really remarkable. A large sea, which was likely to hit us, would fall flat about 15 yards off and slide away under the bows. Some six gallons of oil was used. (Marr is reporting here on a seemingly impossible yet scientific fact - hence the phase 'pouring oil on troubled waters'.)
"The boss (Sir Ernest Shackleton) told me that he had been at sea nearly thirty years and had never seen a gale maintained so long and with such intensity."
Marr was not a pampered passenger but a full member of a small 18-man crew being thrown about in a very small boat on a perilous sea, an experience not given to most of us. But the Scout had even more to contend with. Shackleton,
who had become ever more exultant as the ship passed indications of the approaching Polar region in the form of penguins, albatrosses and icebergs, became 'happy as a sandboy' when the vessel at last reached South Georgia, on the very edge of Antarctica. However, only one day later, on January 5th, 1922, he died in his sleep from a heart attack. He was only 47.
Marr wrote:
"Early in the morning of the 5th we lost our leader, Sir Ernest Shackleton. Frank Wild is now in command, and I do not suppose that there is a better man living.
A great man had left us, and the ship was lonely."
Marr had been writing a log of the expedition and Shackleton, father-like, had assisted him greatly. The log was published after the voyage as Into the Frozen South and it is from this book that many of the quoted passages above are taken.
Because, at that time, South Georgia was not in telegraphic contact with the rest of the world and the family's wishes could not be sought, Shackleton's body was sent on its journey home. When it reached Buenos Aries and his wife was informed, Lady Emily Shackleton asked that he should be buried at the 'Gateway to the Antarctic' and his body was returned to South Georgia. 'The Boss' was buried in the small graveyard at Grytviken whaling station, just across the bay from a promontory overlooking the harbour where a cairn was erected to his memory by Frank Wild the crew of the Quest.
COMMANDER Frank Wild, the Second-in-Command, took over the leadership of the expedition. There were many adventures. On one occasion, when the lifeboats were swung out because of the many icebergs in the vicinity, a large wave caused the ship to roll, one of the lifeboats swung inboard and smashed into a crew member, fracturing his ribs. The ship continued ever Southwards until she could no longer force her way through the pack ice. The course was altered, but there came a point where the Quest, like the Endurance before her, was locked-in by the ice. James Marr helped Mr Wilkins to photograph the situation.
Quest eventually broke free of the ice and maintained a westward course parallel to the edge of the ice pack, looking for open sea 'leads' south, where Marr was treated to the spectacle of a school of eighty or so whales. After being nearly fatally entrapped (during which time the crew played a game of football on the ice), Quest, for the first time, headed away from the pole towards Elephant Island. On landing there, Patrol Leader Marr was told and retold the amazing adventure of Shackleton, Wild and the other survivors of the crushed ship Endurance when they had eventually landed there after two years adrift amidst the ice flows. From Elephant Island the expedition returned to South Georgia. The crew visited Shackleton's grave and left a photograph and the signatures of every member of the expedition under the cairn.
ON its return, the expedition called in at the islands of Tristan da Cunha, originally settled by 6 British Colonists. On May 20th Quest anchored in a small bay, which was renamed in her honour, and the crew entertained for five days by the 300 or so inhabitants of one of the most remote islands in the world. Earlier in the year Baden-Powell had made provision for a Scout Group on the island, sending a signed photograph to its Scout Master, the Minister and senior British Representative on the island, Rev. Rodgers. His wife Rose later wrote The Lonely Island, in which she records:
"The great events on the second and the third days of the Quest visit were the presentation of the troop flag specially given for the Tristan da Cunha Troop by the Chief Scout and the erection of the wireless pole. The Scouts were paraded outside the School House with my husband in Scout kit at their head, with Commander Wild present and myself as A.S.M. Scout Marr presented the flag, which was received by the Patrol Leader, Donald Glass, on behalf of Scouting, and after the boys had given the salute and had been dismissed, he came up with us to the parsonage and had a meal of damper bread and tea. We had a pleasant talk on Scouting and other matters. He was in Highland dress as a Scottish Scout Patrol Leader, and the Tristan folk, who had never seen the kilt, were much impressed. Scout Marr is a big, hefty fellow, and his fine manly style was a great help to our lads, and he must have been a valuable asset to the Quest crew."
Thanks to James Marr's own book, we have his own description of the event:
"I accomplished the ceremony in due form: regretting that I lacked the ability to deliver an inspiring speech; and then after it was all over - after I had inspected the Scouts...I endeavored to tell them what Scouting really meant."
The 50th anniversary of the event was marked by the issue of set of stamps of artist's drawings, perhaps based on the photographs taken at the time.
It is interesting to note that when the Quest departed the islands, the inhabitants dismantled the wireless aerial, which had been presented by the people of Cape Town. There were technical problems it was true, but these could have been overcome - they simply preferred their isolation.
FAR from heading 'ever northwards', the expedition left Tristan da Cunha on May 25th and headed South-South-East for the remote Gough Island. Why this route was chosen is, now, difficult to determine, a more natural route would have had Quest visiting Gough Island before Tristan. It is worth noting that once Shackleton had died, the interest in the expedition also seem to expire, both at the time and even today, when nearly every account of the Voyage of the Quest finishes with Shackleton's death. Perhaps this is the reason why Marr's sequence of events seems illogical and difficult to confirm.
Gough Island was sighted on May 27th and, a day or so afterwards, a small landing party, led by Commander Wild and including Marr, went ashore. They found the remains of an earlier expedition that had explored the island prospecting for gold in 1919. Nobody, it appeared, had been there since. Quest again resumed her voyage, according to Marr, on a heading just north of due east for Cape Town and anchored off Robben Island, overlooked by Table Mountain, shortly after June 17th. The reception laid on for the men of the Quest was memorable - and the girls were as pretty as Marr had hoped they would be.
There was a general feeling amongst the crew that their expedition in the wildness was over and civilisation had been rejoined. Quest nosed her way out of Table Bay on July 13th, on a North-Westerly heading for St Helena, which Marr described as a "derelict island" whose "glories had departed". Now confirmed on the northbound homerun, Quest called at Ascension Island on August 1st, where the expedition anchored for several days. They were just over 1,000 miles south of the Equator and this was the hottest place that Marr had ever encountered. By August 8th the expedition had crossed 'the line' back into the Northern Hemisphere and eventually landed in Plymouth on September 15th.
The real homecoming, however, should have been the arrival of Quest back at St Catherine's Dock, London, exactly one year to the day that the ship had left on what ought to have been a glorious adventure. Adventure there had been, but the death of 'The Boss' overshadowed everything and Marr does not record any special welcome for the ship or her crew. He notes, with a sense of the anticlimax, that Quest, "was finally berthed and our work was done".
Marr concludes his book by recalling the tribute that the crew of the Quest had left behind to their captain, who was now forever at rest in his beloved polar landscape:
"And most poignant and inspiring of all my memories there, is that of the lonely cross outlined against the whirling snow of South Georgian sleet, the sign that remains to tell of the great spirit that led us forth into the Frozen South and died, yet lives again, as a magnet to draw the brave away from sleek comforts of life into that outer world of daring, where man may gaze in awe upon the wonders of the Lord."
MARR was once again fêted as a hero - as is shown by the autographed postcard shown above. He was invited by Baden-Powell to meet the Prince of Wales on his visit to the Rally, held at Alexandra Palace on October 7th, 1922 and attended by 60,000 Scouts and Wolf Cubs. P.L. Marr unfurled the Royal Standard as the Prince arrived at the saluting base.
Marr's logbook, Into the Frozen South, was published in 1923 by Cassell, and that might have been the end of this remarkable story. However, Marr went on to complete his degree at Aberdeen University and sailed south again as a Zoologist on board the William Scoresby from 1927-29. Before the Second World War he completed three further scientific expeditions in Discovery II, spending more time at sea than any other British Polar scientist. He was awarded three Polar Medals.
Operation Tabarin
JAMES Marr became a whaling inspector in the Antarctic, and joined the RNVR in the Second World War. In 1943 he was recalled from operations in the Far East and appointed Field Commander of Operation Tabarin, a covert operation set up, it was generally thought, to deny Germany the use of any of the many abandoned whaler stations which might have been employed as U-boat pens, and to assert the area of British Antarctic Territory, mainly to counter Argentinean claims on that sector of Antarctica. Early in 2005, a BBC Radio programme examined both of these generally-held views and found them to be lacking in substance. It was suggested that Operation Tabarin may have merely been a calculated piece of 'disinformation' to confuse the enemy. Apparently there are still classified documents, which will shed light on the true purpose of the operation when they are eventually released. The fact that they have not already been released with most other classified papers relating to the war when the 50 year expiry date terminated is itself a mystery.
In June 2007 I was fortunate to spend time on Mull, an island off the West Coast of Scotland and after visiting the Duart Castle the home Sir Charles Maclean, 'my' Chief Scout, went on to nearby Torosay Castle, the former home of David Guthrie James. I discovered to my amazement that one of the rooms contained photographs of the building of the one Operation Tabarin's bases at Fort Lockroy and so surmised David James must have been one of the members of Tabarin under Marr's leadership. This was confirmed when turning through the large family scrapbooks in the same room I found press cuttings and photograph of members of Tabarin. The press cuttings were very interesting as they revealed that a public appeal had been made for individuals to accompany Marr in "top secret"work.The leader of the operation was identified, "Scout Marr wants men ", clearly recalling Marr's scouting origin and not at all alluding to his more recent scientific background. James who had had escaped from a Nazi prisoner of war camp had obviously been one of those who had volunteered. I was able to confirm that he in fact joined the expedition as a 'surveyor' when I discovered that a biography of David James called One Man in his Time (See Printed Sources below). This book has a whole chapter on Tabarin- and gives a reasonably clear impression of the 'Operation'. The main purpose seems to have been to build four bases in order to enclose an area of Antarctic territory and make maps of that territory establishing Britain's sovereign claim upon it. The biographer,John Robson, states that the Government believed, as did others, that the whole of Antarctic held considerable mineral deposits. David James became firm friends with Marr and following Tabarin continued with his adventurous life style which somewhat bizarrely included becoming an M.P.and assisting in the quest for 'Nessie', the Lock Ness Monster. James also was part of the Outward Bound movement. He died in 1986 and his ashes were scattered at Torosay.
The undated cuttings in the family scrapbooks at Torosay revealed that Lt.Commander Marr had left the Antarctic at the end of the war before the rest of his men as he had fallen ill. When they did return, the Daily Mail reported,
"One of the country's most 'hush hush' missions landed at Chatham from the cruiser Ajax... ostensibly they were there (in the Antarctic) to carry out scientific and research work in Britain's most remote possession.."
Lt. Commander Marr was interviewed and quoted:
" I am afraid I cannot discuss the purposes of our expedition except to say they were mainly scientific."
This was to be expected as there was not other reason, permitted under the League of Nations Charter, for the British to be there at all. Many must have wondered just what scientific research was it that necessitated fit serving officers and men to be spending time and resources away from 'the front' at the time of Britain's greatest need.
After the war the 'Operation Tabarin' became The Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey. This, in turn, was renamed The British Antarctic Survey, the name by which we know it today, and it was these successors of Operation Tabarin who were largely responsible for the discovery of the hole in the ozone layer.
Port Lockroy (Base A) was established as part of Operation Tabarin. The station was occupied almost continually until 1962, after which it was boarded up. Following a survey by The United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) in 1994, the decision was taken to restore the station and reopen it for the benefit of the increasing numbers of tourists to the area. The station was restored in early 1996 and each summer since it has been open to visitors.
Tour leaders on cruise ships describe Port Lockroy as a highlight of their itinerary. The first day cover shown below features buildings first set up under Marr, and was issued on November 29th, 2001.
James Marr wrote the major reference work on Antarctic krill, the basic component of the Antarctic food chain. Though he could not be described in the same terms as Scott and Shackleton, there being little 'great exploring' left to do, he was none the less a very significant Polar scientist.
He died in Surrey in 1965.
Conclusion
IT is no exaggeration to say that, like others before and after, Marr's life was transformed by his contact with the Scout Movement. There is a remarkable parallel in his story with that of Eagle Scout Paul Siple who was chosen by Admiral Byrd to accompany the US Polar expeditions and whose adventures are covered in a separate Scouting Milestones article. Siple's Scouting contact with the Antarctic lasted much longer than that of Marr, who like the rest of the crew of the Quest did not return home in triumph due to the death of the 'The Boss' Shackleton. Despite his meeting with the Prince of Wales and Operation Tabarin, Marr's fame did not endure. Like Siple he was his country's leading polar scientist between the war. Siple is known for his pioneering work on the Wind Chill Factor, while Marr wrote the definitive work on Krill. Marr however was not given to self-publicity. I have encountered only two items (other than letters) signed by him - one of which was sadly burnt whilst in my possession, the other is a similarly signed postcard. (The burnt one is illustrated previously - its replacement thankfully is now in the CW Collection.) This contrasts greatly with the number of books and philatelic covers in my possession signed by Siple and many other examples which abound. Siple is still a famous name in America. Sadly despite his remarkable story, few people today will have heard of the British Scout. I trust this brief account will help, especially in Scouting circles, to give Scout Marr his proper prominence in our history. As I write this update to these pages in July 2007 there is some evidence that this might be case, as the Scouting Centennial Stamps for two different countries feature one or the other of the unique Marr autographed postcards described above, one such is illustrated below, the other is portrayed on a Tristan Da Cunha issue.
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Acknowledgements
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